Baltimore bus driver suspended after fight with passenger

Kevin Rector, The Baltimore Sun

The video shows a bus driver fighting a girl — and this time it was shot in Baltimore.

A Baltimore bus driver has been suspended by the Maryland Transit Administration pending a police investigation into an altercation between her and a young female student on the No. 40 bus line about 2 p.m. Monday, according to a MTA spokesman.

A video of the fight was posted on YouTube and the website worldstarhiphop.com and later reported by TMZ, and had already been viewed thousands of times as of Tuesday night. It comes on the heels of another video of a male bus driver punching a young woman on a bus in Cleveland that attracted national attention after going viral on the Internet.

In the video out of Baltimore, the bus driver can be seen grappling with the female student. The student appears to punch and kick the driver multiple times as the driver tries to hold the girl down. The bus driver finally seems to overpower the student, and asks her if fighting somebody makes her "feel better."

Other passengers quickly move out of the way. One passenger tells the bus driver to leave the girl alone. The driver appears to say the fight was "about being disrespectful."

Another passenger suggests the girl get the "bus number" and "sue" the driver.

Terry Owens, the MTA spokesman, said the bus driver has worked for the MTA since 2003. He did not know exactly where the bus was when the altercation occurred.

Owens said MTA Police have interviewed the driver and the student, neither of whom he identified, and are continuing their investigation. He was not sure whether witnesses to the fight, including the passenger who uploaded the video, had been interviewed.

"Police will review the YouTube video. They are also pulling the video from the bus to see if it provides a more thorough picture of what happened," Owens said.

The MTA recently installed audio recorders on 10 buses in the city to test a new program that would eventually outfit all 600 buses used by the MTA each day with the devices. Owens said investigators are looking into whether the bus in question was one of the 10 already equipped.

"The YouTube video does have some audio on it, so our guys will be able to listen to that and see where the investigation takes us," Owens said.

In the video out of Cleveland, a male bus driver appears to punch a young woman in the face before throwing her off the bus. It is not entirely clear whether the bus driver was assaulted first. The video registered shock across the country.

Owens said he did not know how many MTA drivers in Baltimore had seen the Cleveland video, but all are aware of the MTA's "very clear" policy about engaging passengers.

"While they receive some conflict-resolution training, our procedure is for operators not to engage a passenger if there's a problem on a bus," Owens said. "Our operators are trained to call a supervisor. If there appears to be any serious threat of bodily harm, then they are expected to call radio dispatch and have a police officer come to the scene."

Owens said the safety of passengers and employees is the MTA's top priority.